Using corpora to discover figurative extensions of word meaning in the language classroom
Jeanette Littlemore,Birmingham University,UK
Research in the area of cognitive linguistics suggests that our thinking is largely dependent on metaphoric processing, and that much abstract thought is based on a number of conceptual metaphors (Lakoff and Johnson, 1980; Lakoff, 1993). For example, the conceptual metaphor LIFE IS A JOURNEY is thought to underlie linguistic expressions, such as 'we must look ahead' 'looking back in history' or 'stay on track'. The abstract concept of 'theory' is often thought about in terms of the conceptual metaphor THEORIES ARE STRUCTURES, giving rise to expressions such as 'what are the foundations for your theory?' and 'the argument is shaky'
Despite the fact that many conceptual metaphors are thought to be universal, cultural differences have been observed in the ways in which they are used. For example, although the conceptual metaphor 'THE BODY IS A CONTAINER FOR THE EMOTIONS' (e.g., 'Anger was building up inside him') appears in most languages, some languages show a preference for 'locating' particular emotions in specific parts of the body. In Hungarian, for example, the emotion of anger is commonly considered to be in the head, while in Japanese, anger can rise from the stomach via the chest to the head (Kovecses, 1995). Deignan et al. (1997) identified a number of cross-linguistic differences between conceptual metaphors and their linguistic variations. They classified these differences into four types:
same conceptual metaphor but different linguistic expressions;
different conceptual metaphors used in the two languages;
words and expressions with the same literal meanings but different metaphorical meanings.
As these types of linguistic elaborations vary across languages and are apparently arbitrary, they are likely to present difficulties for foreign language learners. They therefore merit closer investigation.
A small number of studies have used corpora to examine differences between pairs of languages. For example, in their corpus-based study comparing English and Italian figurative extensions of body parts, Deignan and Potter (2004) found that both English and Italian contain figurative extensions the word 'mouth', but that in Italian, the metaphorical entailments are more richly developed, to include phrases such as 'bocca dolce' (have a sweet taste), 'bocca amara' (have a bitter taste in the mouth), and 'riempirsi la bocca' (literally 'fill your mouth', meaning to talk about something excessively) (ibid. 1249). Furthermore, they found that the range of acceptable variation differed between the languages in terms of both lexis and structure. For instance, although expressions with 'mouth' are used in both languages to mean 'become or remain silent', in English, we can talk about keeping our mouths shut or shutting someone else's mouth, but in Italian, there are far more possibilities, including 'serrare' (literally 'screw shut'), 'tappare' (literally 'cork up'), and 'cucire' (literally, 'sew shut').
Many of the above examples involve a metonymic extension process whereby nouns are turned into verbs. The resulting verbs usually focus our attention on one peripheral aspect of the original noun. For example, in English, we have the verb 'to weather' as in 'her face was weathered by the sun', which is derived from the noun 'weather', and which refers to the effects of that long-term exposure to a particular type of weather has on a particular surface. In English, as in all languages, this process can be applied to some, but not all nouns, so we can talk about 'mushrooming costs', 'hot desking', and 'papering the walls', but we cannot use the verbs 'curtaining', 'windowing' or 'book-shelving' (although we do talk about 'booking tickets' and 'shelvingg plans').
Other languages employ this type of metonymic extension, but they do so differently, and with different words. For instance, in French the noun béton (concrete) can be verbalised to form the verb bétonner (to concrete, to build using concrete), and the noun 'noyau' (the pit or stone of a fruit) can be verbalised to form the verb 'denoyauter', which means to take the stone out of a fruit, and metaphorically extended to form the verb 'noyauter', which means 'to infiltrate' (to get to the core). Of the three English examples mentioned above, the only one that works in French is (wall) paper and to paper the walls. In French there is the noun 'tapisserie' (one meaning being 'wallpaper') and the verb 'tapisser' (to wallpaper). Historically, both terms are derived from 'tapis', in the old sense of 'drape' or 'hanging'. Spanish is similar to French in that, of the three English examples, the only one that properly translates is 'papering', as in 'empapelar una habitación (a room)' from 'papel' (paper). Interestingly, 'empapelar' can be metaphorically extended in Spanish to form the informal, and slightly aggressive 'empapelar a alguien' (to paper someone), which means 'to make things very difficult for someone'. Spanish also has its own metonymic verbalisations. For instance, the noun Agosto can be changed to agostar (to 'August'), although it is mainly used as a participle, 'agostado' meaning mean withered, parched, or exhausted. None of the three English examples work in Japanese, but unlike in English, it is possible to say 'to curtain' in Japanese, which means 'to draw the curtains'. Finally, in Hungarian, none of the English examples are possible, but the word 'pénz' meaning 'money' can be metonymically verbalised to form 'pénzel' meaning 'to sponsor', and 'kar' meaning 'arm' can be metonymically adapted to form 'karol' 'to embrace' . Neither of these adaptations is possible in English.
Given this variation between languages, it may well be worthwhile for language teachers to discuss with their students the types of words can be coined in the target language, and to encourage them to compare this with the word coinage patterns in their own language. Indeed, recent research into the acquisition of figurative extensions of word meaning such as these suggests that the learner's native language has a significant degree of influence on successful acquisition in the target language. For example, Boers and Demecheleer (2001) found that figurative expressions that have a different conceptual basis in the L1 are much more difficult to interpret than expressions which share the same conceptual basis.
One way in which language learners might be helped to grasp figurative extensions of word meaning is through the use of corpora. They could be given corpus lines such as those in Figure 1, and asked to work out the meanings of the highlighted expressions. An even better approach would be to use this sort of material in a tandem learning context, where, for example, an English-speaking student of Spanish is paired with a Spanish-speaking student of English, and between them, they attempt to establish the possibilities and limitations that their respective languages have for figuratively extending the word 'neck'. It would also be necessary to draw the students' attention to the phraseological patterns that typically surround the different types of figurative extension.
1. when he took a broken bottle by the neck and ground the sharp end into the
2. sloped shoulder and long, tapered neck. The glass is clear. The opening is
3. Cardigan. all-over design, casual V-neck and bright `capsule" buttons make
4. Knitted entirely by hand, this v-neck beauty features majestic
5. ones are a pain in the political neck. Andrew Sullivan…
6. poll numbers have shot up. She is now neck and neck with her main challenger
7. are running first in California, neck and neck with the president and
8. a Los Angeles Times poll puts him neck and neck with the president and
9. Charlie Kray, who was up to his neck in Mafia dirty-dealing. Charlie has
10. and war in Nigeria - is up to his neck in the scandal. The ex-Virgin
11. the runner-up, who failed by only a neck to give the winner 24lb. There was
12. win his ninth win of the season by a neck, with his horse Smokin Beau (20-1)
13. kill when you know the police are breathing down your neck. Wertheimer:
14. in the offering and bankers are breathing down the company's neck to make
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Figure 1. Metaphorical extensions of the word 'neck' in English
It would be interesting to investigate the contribution that this sort of approach might make to language learning. It would also be useful to identify the problems caused by cross-cultural differences in the ways in which conceptual metaphors are elaborated, and to identify concrete strategies which language learners can use to deal with them in the target language. This is likely to be a fruitful avenue of investigation, worthy of exploration by both language teachers and researchers.
References
Boers, F. and Demecheleer, M. (1995). Travellers, patients and warriors in English, Dutch and French economic discourse. Revue Belge de Philosophie et d'Histoire 73, 673-691.
Boers, F. and Demecheleer, M. (2001). Measuring the impact of cross-cultural differences on learners' comprehension of imageable idioms, English Language Teaching Journal 55 (3), 255-262.
Cameron, L. and Deignan, A. (2003). Combining large and small corpora to investigate tuning devices around metaphor in spoken discourse. Metaphor and Symbol, 18(3), pp.149-160.
Deignan, A., Gabrys, D. , and Solska, A. (1997). Teaching English metaphors using cross-linguistic awareness-raising activities. English Language Teaching Journal 51 (4) 352-360.
Deignan, A. and Potter, L. (2004). A corpus study of metaphors and metonyms in English and Italian. The Journal of Pragmatics.
Goatly, A. (1997). The language of metaphors. London and New York: Routledge.
Kövecses, Z. (1995). 'The "container" metaphor of anger in English, Chinese, Japanese and Hungarian'. In R. Zdravko (ed.) From a Metaphorical Point of View: a Multidisciplinary Approach to the Cognitive Content of Metaphor pp. 117-147, Berlin/New York: Walter de Gruyter.
Lakoff, G. (1993) 'The Contemporary Theory of Metaphor', in A. Ortony (ed.) Metaphor and Though t, 2nd ed. pp. 202-251, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Lakoff, G. and Johnson, M. (1980). Metaphors We Live By. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
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